When HALF-LIFE 2 was released, the Source Engine was a single-platform
eight years in development based on a single-threaded code base several
years older than that. Today it is a multi-platform, multi-threaded
system designed to capitalize on any number of cores. Getting there
required rearchitecting or rewriting broad swaths of code to accommodate
multiple threads of execution efficiently, from low-level allocators,
to rendering pipelines, to AI systems. This session examines the process
the speaker went through upgrading Valve's Source Engine to take
advantage of multiple cores and approaches used to keep all available
processors actively executing. The speaker analyzes the experiments,
infrastructure, and tools involved in moving a mature code base onto
contemporary PC and console hardware. The talk explores successes and
failures along the way to creating an efficient and easy to use
multithreaded engine from an established single threaded base.

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